Anonymously written around the year 1375, The Cloud of Unknowing — a lucid and deceptively simple manual on contemplative spirituality — offers a fascinating glimpse into the practical side of medieval mysticism. It remains important and valuable in our day not only because of its historical value, but because of how surprisingly relevant and up-to-date it remains, even here in the twenty-first century.The Cloud of Unknowing appears to have been written for a young person who is just beginning a life devoted to contemplation, either as a monk or a solitary. Its author may have been a priest, or may have himself been a monastic, but unfortunately we can do little more than speculate on the matter. So effective is his cloak of anonymity that we know virtually nothing about him (or her).

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